OF LABRADOR AND MAINE. 237 



the State, and deep bays and fiords occupied the beds of the present lakes, we see that the 

 course of those fiords were at nearly right angles to the direction assumed by those of the 

 present coast line. This applies to each of the two interior coast lines. It is also evident 

 that the middle coast line is more complete, the descent more abrupt at a given point, and 

 consecpaently it is probable that the sea stood for a great length of time at this level. It is 

 doubtful whether the inner series of lakes lying on the water-shed were ever deep fiords, 

 as we have no evidence from fossils that the sea rose over 500 feet above its present level. 



There is a special connection between the distribution of the three varieties of clays in 

 the State, which present such different lithological and pala^ontological, or in the case of 

 one, want of palreontological characters. 



As we shall see below, the lowest horizon of life occurs in beds exposed only near high- 

 tide mark on the coast, and consisting of an unusually tough clay filled with boulders over- 

 laid by a great thickness of clay, which gradually becomes lighter in its character as we as- 

 cend to the upper layers. This is the eai'lier boulder clay. Next we have lighter brick- 

 yard clays with their peculiar horizon of life, which are spread over the lowlands between 

 a line about 25 feet above the high-tide mark, and the middle coast line from twenty 

 to seventy-five miles in the interior and rising 200 feet above high-tide mark. Again, be- 

 tween this middle coast line and the top of the water-shed or interior line of coast and the 

 bases of the mountains, occur the moraine clays or unmodified drift, though all these three 

 varieties of clays evidently graduate into each other. In this inland area there is a greater 

 proportion of rock surface exposed, and a far greater abundance of boulders, arranged in 

 clearly marked trains, than upon the coast. In this highland region occur the marks of 

 ancient glaciers, left in these trains of boulders, which were undoubtedly lateral moraines, 

 and in the terminal moraines in the form of tumuli and especially rounded hillocks of pecu- 

 liar shape, consisting wholly of gravel, which have been rounded by the subsequent action 

 of the sea, and farther modified by the action of the broad rivers of the Terrace Epoch. 



While the general direction of the drift or glacial strioe in the State is northwesterly, 

 there are two other courses, a general north and south one, and more rarely a northeast- 

 erly course. In analyzing the directions of these stria?, as given by Mr. C. H. Hitchcock in 

 the first " Report on the Geology of Maine," 1862, for seventy-seven localities, to which we 

 would add three localities, Brunswick, Falmouth, and Lewiston, making eighty in all, we 

 find that one of the number alone runs north and south, while sixty-two of the number run 

 west of north; and seventeen, or less than one-fourth, run east of north. Of the sixty- 

 two N. W. striae, those occurring in localities in the northern part of the State have a 

 greater westing, (from 40°-50°), than those nearer the coast. On the other hand, of the 

 seventeen N. E. striae, the greatest amount of easting occurs near the coast, being from 

 10°-20°. In the interior the great majority, nearly three-fourths of all the N. E. stria), only 

 vary 5°-10° from a north and south line. One mark on Lake Telos is put down by Mr. 

 Hitchcock as 80° east, but in a region where the glaciation proceeded almost from the due 

 west ; this we must think is probably an observation which needs to be confirmed, as the 

 majority of striae run from 30°-50° W. of N. 



Thus the northwesterly course of the glacial grooves and striaa is especially marked in 

 the interior of the State, on the highlands and low mountains, whose stoss and lee sides 

 uniformly agree with this course. But as we approach the coast, the glaciers, whose marks 

 we see, moved down the river valleys and thus assumed a more north and south course 

 and at times, owing to local bends in the depressions, were even deflexed so as to flow from 



